New Look
by Kohroxmysox
Summary: Zuko is looking for his mom and finds someone unexpected. Will she lead to a major change in his life? Zutara. Now with a plot!
1. Mom?

A/N: OMK! (Oh my Koh!) The gaang has new hairstyles! If you haven't seen yet go to http:// avatar spirit. net (without the spaces) asap! I had a sudden inspiration and had to write so enjoy!

Edit: I have a plot! In order to follow through, I needed to change this chapter a bit.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or the gaang's totally awesome new hairstyles!

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Zuko walked through the woods of the Fire Nation searching desperately. He had lost track of time since he had begun wandering through the never ending trees, driven by one goal. His mother.

It was impossible, she couldn't have died..

"_You killed her!"_

"_Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't."_

"_... You know brother, mother was rumored to be spotted in these woods..."_

No, he couldn't believe it. Even now, he wouldn't accept it. No one to go for advice, no one to understand him, no one to ...

The prince heard something, it sounded like... turtle ducks? That meant water was nearby! He picked up his pace slightly and came to a clearing. He turned his head to the pond and saw a woman feeding a group of turtle ducklings. The woman looked exactly as he remembered his mother, the same hair, similar cloths, he didn't remember how tall his mother was so he would have never guessed.

"Mom?" He asked timidly.

"What?" she lifted her gaze off the water and turned while saying, "Who are you and what ..."

He met her gaze and took a step back. Mocha skin, crystal blue eyes. He turned to his left and sure enough there was the avatar's flying bison. He turned to the waterbender again who was still sitting in shock. He couldn't help but notice her new Fire Nation garb. It fit her a bit tighter and showed off her curves far better than her old water tribe cloths. Come to think of it she was actually quite stunning for a peasant.

Zuko was so wrapped up in his hormones that he barely noticed half the pond flying at him. The last thing he thought before banging his head on a nearby tree and passing out was, 'Damn hormones!'

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A/N: Heh, inspiration got the better of me. :P Katara's hair looks like Ursa's. XD Please review!

Edit: I had a reason to change this. PLOT!! A plot that made me go w/o sleep a night! I was up for 30 hours, then collapsed and slept for 18.


	2. Rule Number Two!

A/N: Well, this was a crappy little oneshot, now it's a crappy little story! Yay crap!

**WARNING:** The following has no plot, none! And may not be completed! You have been warned!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. You know that already, and I know you know, so... Why am I telling you? Hmmmm...

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Katara ran over to the Prince of the Fire Nation. What the heck was he doing here? He said something before she attacked him, it was too faint for her to hear though.

She stopped in front of him and looked down at his unconscious form. Why hadn't he attacked her anyway? He hadn't even bothered to try and defend her attack!

Her mind stopped racing for a moment as she focused on the task at hand. "Great! So what am I going to do with him!" She asked herself. Her eyes darted from Zuko, to the trees, to the rope over by Appa and a smirk made it's way across her lips.

As Katara walked over to get the rope she couldn't help but let out a giggle. Oh, the irony! If Zuko ever got out of this he would never be able to live it down!

The waterbender stood with her left hand on her hip and the rope in her right. Now for the hard part. How was she going to tie him up? She sighed and crouched down by his shoulders. Katara placed the rope on the floor and gingerly slid her hands under his armpits. As she did, she felt a small tingle rush through her body, not unlike the one she got in the cave with her hand on his scar. She looked down at him, without the scar, he would be quite handsome, actually, he was already. The scar sort of made him Zuko.

She quickly shook the thought from her head. No fantasizing about the Prince of the Fire Nation. That's Avatar companion rule number two! The first being protect Aang at all costs and help him to defeat the Fire Lord.

With those thoughts out of mind Katara pulled him against the tree so that he was sitting in an upright position. She grabbed the rope and pulled his hands around either side of the tree. Then a thought hit her, he would just burn off the ropes when he woke up. Katara lifted her hands and bent some of the water that had fallen to the ground from her attack. She streamed it over to the rope and soaked it, a trick she had learned from her father. Now he couldn't burn through the rope.

She then tied the wet rope as tight as possible around his wrists. Katara then cut the rope and scooted back to where the unconscious prince was sitting. Now she had to get him to stand. Seeing no other alternative, she walked over to face Zuko and stood in front of him. She bent down and wrapped her arms around his torso. As she did so she couldn't help but notice how built his muscles were.

'Stop it Katara!' she thought to herself, 'Remember, rule number two!'

Pulling him closer to her chest she gave a pull up and struggled against his weight. She wrapped her arms around him tighter and gave another pull. There. He was standing. She held his body up with hers as she grabbed the rope, a blush spreading across her face as she realized what she was doing. In a subconscious part of her brain she hoped she could one day be in this position again one day when he was conscious. Then she reminded herself, 'rule number two!' She tied the rope around his body and the tree tightly to keep him standing.

The waterbender crouched down and did the same to his feet.

She took a few steps back and admired her handiwork. There was something missing... well it couldn't hurt.

Katara took a stance and bended more water off the ground. Splashing it against him she quickly froze him to the tree. Another smirk made it's way across her face. Now, what was she going to tell the Gaang?

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A/N: What's there to say? This is crap, but I'll continue anyway, can't hurt. Review please!


	3. The Enemy

A/N: Lack of sleep from Comicon pressure forced me into writing more crap! Enjoy the crappyness!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. Wanna know what I own? CRAP! Which is my favorite word after ginormous, which is now officially a word! If you ever used the word ginormous and someone told you it's not a word, go rub it in their face now! That' what I'm planning to do to my English teacher!

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Katara sat at the pond again thinking about what she would say to the others, and more importantly, what they would do when Zuko woke up.

She cast a glance over at the prince, who had his head tilted to the right, showing his scar. She also couldn't help but notice how long his hair was getting. It was actually sort of...

_Don't even go there! Rule number two!_

The waterbender sighed to herself. She forced herself into remembering the bad old days.

Zuko invading the South Pole and terrorizing the villagers. Zuko nearly burning down Kyoshi Island. Zuko shooting ginornous fireballs at them. Zuko tying her to a tree and bribing her. Zuko recognizing the necklace was hers. His hot breath against her skin. His rough, calloused hands wrapped around her wrists. Their bodies inches apart. Oh, why hadn't she closed the space...

_Wait! No! Rule number two! Remember the bad times Katara!_

She shook her head and tried again

Zuko attacking them with a Shirshu. Zuko saving her from falling off the Shirshu. His touch on her lower back...

_Katara! Bad times! You. Hate. Him!_

Zuko kidnapping Aang at the North Pole. Zuko knocking her out. Zuko implying that he didn't want to hurt her. Zuko never giving up. Zuko tossing the Avatar aside as if he meant nothing, to focus on her. Maybe one day that would happen in more of a 'just kiss me already' way than a 'come for a rematch' sort of way...

_Katara you're impossible! Look, if you break rule number two, you can't travel with the Avatar. If you can't travel with the Avatar, he may be too depressed to even try to defeat the Fire Lord. If he doesn't defeat the Fire Lord, the world as we know it will come to an end. If the world comes to an end, you can't even see Zuko anymore. It's a chain reaction! And if that wasn't enough, remember the catacombs! Not the warm tingly sensation you got when you put your hand on his scar, the 'I'm going to kill you Avatar!' look on his face. His betrayal!_

Katara gritted her teeth. The sensible part of her brain was right. He was the enemy after all. The hot, sexy, beautifully bushy haired, enemy.

_Well, I guess that's as close as I'll get._

At that moment a rustling came from the trees by Appa. Katara turned and saw Aang and Toph supporting a quivering Sokka.

"What happened?" Katara asked concerned as she ran over towards them, momentarily forgetting the prisoner.

"Well, ya see, Sokka went out towards the city and thought it was a good idea to jack a soldier." Toph said setting the warrior down.

"Oh my Koh! Did he get beat up?" Katara asked as worry for her brother completely blocked out everything else.

"Er, not exactly." Aang said scratching the back of his previously bald head. "See he beat up the guy, and took his sword. Then he found a piece of bark in the woods that had two holes in it."

Toph continued it from here. "And Sokka came and thought it would be fun to try and scare us. So he jumps out of the woods holding the bark up in front of his face shouting in gibberish and swinging the sword around. Aang freaks out and hits him hard with a rock in the wrong place."

She saw her brothers eyes flutter open and then widen in shock, pain apparently forgotten. His three companions were staring at him in confusion when he yelled, "HOW THE HECK DID ZUKO GET TIED TO A TREE!?!"

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A/N: I got tired so I had to stop here. It may be a while before I update again. I mean, after the season 3 trailer and the Maiko kiss... it may take a little time to recover from the shockwave. Review please! The more reviews, the faster you get an update!


	4. Messenger Momo

A/N: Because I realize I forgot to point this out, this starts around episode 6 or 7. I went back and edited the first chapter. I didn't change it too much, but, you have to go back and read it for the chapters after this one to make sense.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. I do own a plot! Now you may not have to read the word crap in every chapter! Darn! I just said it! Well, AFTER this chapter you may not have to hear it! XD

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Aang's eyes and Toph's feet darted over to where Zuko was tied to a tree. After seeing his frozen and tied up form they turned back to Katara.

"Uh Katara?" asked the confused airbender, "Why _is_ Zuko tied to a tree... and frozen to it?"

"Well, he's tied to a tree for revenge, and he's frozen to it for tradition." Katara responded nonchalantly, just for the fun of it.

"Tradition?" Toph asked raising an eyebrow.

"Seriously Katara, first Jet, now Zuko..." Sokka responded.

"And those guys from the Earthbending academy." Katara reminded him.

"Oh ya, them too." The warrior commented.

"GUYS!!!" Aang yelled, staring at Zuko, "Can we get back to why Zuko's unconscious?"

"Right," Katara said, uncrossing her arms, "Well, I was feeding the turtleducks, I heard a voice, and I saw Zuko. He just stood there, in shock I guess, and I knocked him out with my waterbending."

"He didn't even put up a fight?"

"Why was he out here alone? I thought he was all buddy-buddy with Azula?"

"Why doesn't he have any supplies?"

Katara put her hand against her forehead and sighed as her friends voiced the questions she had been wondering while she had been waiting for them.

"Momo!" she heard Aang shout. She turned her head to where Aang was pointing. Sure enough the lemur was flying towards the campsite. He was tasked with delivering messages between the gaang and Teo's army, and was given a few days rest in between flights.

The lemur landed on Aang's outstretched arm and was being pet by the Avatar as Katara untied the scroll attached to the lemurs leg. He turned to face Zuko and hissed, knowing that he was unwelcome.

Katara opened the letter from Teo and read it out loud.

"_Dear Avatar Aang,_

_Things are fine here, we could be ready for attack at a moment's notice. Our food supply is fine and we should last until the eclipse next week._

_Best wishes,_

_Teo"_

"Well, it's good to know they're okay." Sokka said bringing Momo a bowl of water, which the lemur eagerly accepted.

Right as Toph was about to say something, they heard a groan from behind them. Zuko was waking up.

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A/N: Eh, sort of a filler. I'm not too happy about this one, but I'm too tired to do more on it. REVIEW PLEASE!!!!


	5. Rule Number Two Again!

Disclaimer: We all know that I don't own Avatar, if I did, I would be in a lot of trouble for giving away my version of the plot line. XD

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Zuko's eyes fluttered open as he slowly returned to consciousness. As his vision cleared he vaguely realized that he was standing up. Highly unusual, in fact, he didn't even remember going to sleep. He moved to rub the sleep from his eyes and realized he couldn't move his hands, and he was cold, very cold. His eyes flew open as he remembered what had happened. Fight with Azula, ran to the forest, looked for my mother, found the waterbender, passed out. As everything flooded back into memory he jerked his head up and took a glance around him.

"The Avatar," he whispered, and moved to attack him. He had no idea why. He was basically on the run from the Fire Nation while _in_ the Fire Nation. Turning in the Avatar _could_ be a problem, considering he would probably be arrested as well. He guessed after three years of hunting the Avatar, it was just a natural reaction. None of this mattered though since he couldn't move his legs. The ex-prince looked down and saw himself frozen to the tree.

Stupid peasants. He was a _firebender_. Fire melts ice, he thought as he used the technique he had used to get out of the iceberg back at the North Pole. He moved toward the group again, but felt himself restricted. Ropes. Were they serious? He carefully heated his right hand and attempted to singe through the rope... Hm, that was weird. The rope wasn't burning. He heated his hand even more and tried again. Still, no burning. He couldn't pull out his broadswords like this, the rope wouldn't burn, he hated to admit it, but, he was stuck.

He turned his gaze to the Avatar and his friends who were snickering at his attempts of escape. In reluctant, but inevitable defeat he spoke. "All right, I'm caught, now get to the point and say what you want."

The water tribe girl glared daggers at him and balled her fists. "What we want. You wanna know what we want? NOW you want to know! That didn't make the slightest difference back in Ba Sing Se! You didn't give a care back then!" Ooh, very bad choice of words Zuko, very, very, bad.

"What makes the difference now Zuko!" She continued, pacing around in a manner similar to what she was doing back in the catacombs. "You'll listen now that your freedom is in our hands!"

"Whether or not you let me go does not determine my freedom." He replied in a monotone.

"Do NOT even start with me on freedom!" Dang it! Another bad choice of words! "Do you realize that millions of people lost their freedom because of what you did!" Her face was practically red with rage now. It was actually sort of... attractive. What? NO! That's Fire Prince rule number two! No fantasizing about peasants/companions of the Avatar, the first being do whatever it takes to become Fire Lord.

"Katara, calm down!" The elder water tribe sibling said, putting a hand on his sister's shoulder, "You can yell at Zuko later, for now we have to discuss what we're doing about him."

The waterbender took a deep breath and nodded, following her brother to where the Avatar and the earthbender were standing.

Zuko sighed. Whatever they decided his fate was, he knew it wouldn't be good. In fact, he had a feeling it would be bad, VERY bad.

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The group huddled together a ways away from Zuko and started whispering to each other.

This was just too much, Sokka thought to himself. I mean, the day started out okay. He woke up, ate some meat, and jacked some firebenders. But then he was attacked by a hogmonkey in the woods, got a piece of tree bark stuck to his face, and was hit in the groin by a rock. A BIG rock. And to top it all off, this.

"So what's the plan?" Toph whispered.

Everyone looked at Sokka.

"Why is everyone... oh right, plan guy." he said letting his arms fall.

"Any ideas Sokka?" The Avatar asked.

"Well, I did get this new sword. And it'd be a shame to..." Sokka said evilly.

"There's no killing him Sokka." Katara said, speaking up at last.

"I thought you hated ol' Princy Katara?" Toph asked raising an eyebrow.

"I do, but that's beside the point." Katara said.

"Then why can't I use my sword?" Sokka asked caressing the blade.

"I think I get what Katara's trying to say." Aang said, looking at the Water Tribe girl.

"Explain Twinkle toes."

"Well, we've captured the Prince of the Fire Nation. He's too big a playing piece to just dispose of. Right Katara?"

"Basically."

"But what are we gonna do with him?" Sokka asked. This was confusing him. Zuko chases them halfway across the world, gets Aang killed, and now they're _not_ killing him. Like he said at the north pole. 'This makes sense, let's _save_ the guy who's constantly trying to kill us.'

"Well..." Aang said hesitating. "Now I know what you'll say, so, at least don't say it until I'm done. Kay?"

The gaang nodded their heads.

"Good," Aang continued, "Well, Zuko's a firebender, and, I do need to master firebending, so I was thinking, maybe he could... you know... teach me?"

"WHAT!!!!" everyone screamed, alerting Zuko, who raised an eyebrow at them.

Random cries of different arguments rang through the other three. Aang let out a sigh and waited for the noise to subside. Within a few minutes it did.

"Guys, listen." Aang said to his friends, "I need a teacher. Roku said that I have to master all four elements by summer's end. I can't beat the Fire Lord without learning it. I doubt we'll find someone else who can teach me. I mean, we have no idea where Jeong Jeong is, and we don't even know if Iroh is around anymore."

At this, Toph shut her eyes and bowed her head, obviously suppressing tears.

"I know it'll be hard to get through to him." the airbender continued.

"Try impossible." Katara said crossing her arms.

"Katara," The Avatar said, "Iroh, was right. There is good inside him. We just need to figure out how to bring it out."

"Sugar Queen, you and Princy were getting pretty close in the catacombs. Can you think of anything?" Toph said, oblivious to the daggers Katara was glaring at her.

"Wha... you... how..." Katara stammered. Her face glowing red.

"Ya, I was spying on you." Toph said nonchalantly.

"Huh," Sokka said, "That explains why I had to drag Toph everywhere. Oh, and what do you mean they were getting close!!!"

"We talked a bit down there, okay? Nothing major." Katara said, folding her arms.

Toph decided not to press the issue any farther. She'd annoy Katara about it later.

"Katara." Aang pressed, "You may not want to remember what happened down there, but you have to try."

Katara let out a sigh, "Sokka's sword is beginning to sound better and better." Sokka was about to retort when she continued. "I remember it perfectly."

"And did you learn anything about him, anything we could use?" Aang asked.

"Actually, ya..." she said in realization, wondering why he would talk with _her_ about things like that. Although her voice traied off with the realization, she quickly continued, "but I still don't like this plan. For all we know Azula could have sent him here."

"If zappy chick knew we were here, she would have come with an army of firebenders and soldiers instead of sending Princy." Toph said reasonably.

"But just as a precaution, we'll keep an eye on him at all times, and Toph will earthbend him in a cage at night." Aang said.

"This plan, actually sort of makes sense..." Sokka said.

"Ya," the Blind Bandit said stroking her chin, "I mean, he's next in line for Fire Lord, it's better to have him as a friend than an enemy."

Katara sighed in exasperation. "You guys are all crazy! It's not like he'll actually agree to this!"

"Not without your help Katara." Aang said, "You probably know him better than the rest of us. Something tells me you can get through to him."

Katara crossed her arms and muttered a, "Fine."

"Great, so we should start the interrogation now right?" Aang asked.

"Right." Toph responded leading the way to the prince.

Now Sokka was very confused. Life would be so much simpler if he could just use his sword.

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A/N: Okay, because you guys have been awesome I decided to give you a chapter twice as long as usual! XD I gave an explanation for Sokka's wacky behavior earlier. :) Next chapter, the interrogation.

Review please!


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